How a retired executive keeps contributing to success

Since she retired,  Charuvarn has stepped into the spotlight as a trouble-shooter for Lowe around Southeast Asia, where her experience in managing business crises has proven invaluable.

"When I first joined Lowe Thailand back in 1997, the country was immersed in economic uncertainty, similar to what we have now. My introduction to the business was trial by fire. There wasn't a lot of time to learn about the business. You had to make decisions quickly or you could not survive."

Indeed, economic turmoil sweeps across markets in Asia. There is no script for how to manage effectively. Often, it takes bold decisions based on imperfect information, time pressures and unpredictable market trends to get things done. In this case, guts and instincts - qualities  Charuvarn has in spades - are needed to complement fact-based decision-making.

"Our management team around the region is very capable but once in a while when a crisis arises, such as when a top executive suddenly leaves, I'm called in to fix the situation,"  Charuvarn said.

She affectionately dubs herself "the fixer" but there is much more to the title than simply flying into a country, fixing a problem and then flying out. The real challenge is to build the capabilities of local management so they can resolve future challenges on their own.

"Once an immediate problem is under control, much of what I do is related to people development - finding the right people and building their confidence to lead on their own," she said.

For example, Charuvarn was recently asked to step in and serve as the country manager for one of Lowe's operations in southeast Asia, a challenge further complicated when the creative director suddenly left. Her experience in Thailand allowed her to keep the operation on an even keel, until she could mobilise and orient a new leadership team.

"These emergency operations are not easy to manage. Even as we were searching for replacement leaders, decisions still had to be made to keep the business moving forward and staff morale intact,"  Charuvarn said."And once the new leadership team was in place, we had to prepare them for success."

Using her experience and business acumen, she invests considerable time coaching top management talent, especially when it comes to figuring out the right formula to manage business disruptions, innovate and drive healthy growth.

"It's not enough for senior managers to simply win a bunch of awards for great advertising,"  Charuvarn said."They need to know how to convert those awards into a continuous stream of new business."

Larry Chao is managing director of Chao Group Limited, an organisational-change and training consultancy based in New York and Bangkok (www.chaogroup.com).